Are you looking to have a career in search engine optimization, but aren’t sure what to do? Want to learn how to become an SEO Content Writer? Then this article is for you.
How to Get Started with SEO Content Writing
These simple measures can be taken to get paid for writing SEO content:
- Make sure you understand the principles of writing. Though it can be useful, a college degree or certification is not required.
- Learn the fundamentals of search engine optimization, such as how to naturally incorporate keyword terms into written content.
- Apply for jobs with online writing companies, or look for another niche for your abilities.
Understanding SEO Content Writing
If you love SEO and content marketing, it will pay you to learn how to become an SEO content writer. However, there’s a lot of competition out there for writing jobs, especially on sites like Upwork and Freelancer.
And since search engine optimization is somewhat of a niche market, the pay is good. It takes time to earn your client’s trust and become a valuable writer for them. But if you can follow these tips, you should be well on your way to becoming a pro SEO content writer.
What SEO Content Writers Do
SEO content writers are a necessary part of the marketing services industry. As a major player in the search engine optimization field, SEO content writers must be good at writing engaging content and copywriting.
These writers have to come up with new and exciting topics consistently, as well some of their best work comes from their use of keywords.
With more than half of all internet users turning to search engines to find what they want online, it is essential that your website be ranked highly in the results pages.
What is content writing?
Content writing is the process of producing a piece of work that is informative and educative and it requires significant research, planning, interviewing many other ways to collect data.
What is SEO content writing?
SEO Content writing is the process of producing search engine optimized content following a guideline, so as to rank well on Google.
How do I Become an SEO Content Writer?
Becoming an SEO content writer requires hard work, dedication, and learning the current skills in the industry. To start your journey as an SEO content writer, you need to:
- Have passion for writing
- Master the art of research
- Get degree and other relevant certifications
- Be ready to start as an intern with different organizations
- Build your portfolio and attach with a freelancer or SEO content writer
- Study hard to be aware of the competition and master the latest trends in SEO
- Know about social media
- Start off and work closely with people within the niche.
1. Have a passion for writing and like the skill
You must love writing and be ready to continue gaining more skills in SEO as time progresses for you to excel. As a content writer, your life should often be filled with the joys of trying out different SEO tactics and implementing them on your own website.
Sometimes your day job as an SEO writer will always involve pushing pixels and pushing SEO ideas and techniques.
2. Master the art of research
While content writers are less technical than programmers, they have to understand the intricacies of SEO more than any other professional involved in web design and development.
Simply, SEO requires more knowledge about writing. You need to be ready to conduct extensive research about a particular keyword and also make it engaging. People need information.
People also need relevant information. Be ready to produce as much information about a topic as possible so as to educate and inform people properly.
3. Get the degree and other relevant certifications and learn about programming languages
If you have been struggling to fit in as an SEO content writer with your degree, try going for SEMrush certifications online.
It’s free. Most of the key certifications you need are free, learn, write the exams and gain the skills. Also, learn about HTML and other relevant programming tools because they will help you in the long run.
4. Be ready to work in different organizations as an SEO content writer intern
Working at different SEO agencies as an intern or apprentice will help equip you with different skills needed in the field.
5. Build up a portfolio and attach with a freelancer or SEO content writer
If you are new to SEO writing and looking for ways to improve your SEO articles, you can attach with someone in the field all ready to learn. Some have been doing SEO copywriting for 4 years and have learned a lot of helpful tips along the way.
Many of these you will be aware of when you pay for them to teach you. However, hopefully, with time you will find at least one thing that you can incorporate into your writing today!
6. Study hard to be aware of competition and master the latest trend in SEO
For all kinds of freelancing jobs, especially content writing jobs competitions, many writers already are online.
Competition should help boost your learning potential and creativity. The several things you can do to face the competition is to keep on learning.
7. Know about social media
You must recognize the importance of social media in content writing. This is where you showcase yourself. Know everything about the whole platform available and within your nitch.
Also, get to showcase some of your best skills that can make you an in-house marketing expert when it comes to working with clients one on one.
8. Start off and work closely with people within your company
Get to work closely with other people within your company and get to help them through email marketing, databases, Google Analytics, and Bing/Yahoo Analytics.
What Skills Must an SEO Content Writer Possess?
If you want to write SEO content well, you should be able to:
- Create grammatically correct, concise writing.
- Focus your attention on the reader’s needs.
- Utilize SEO keywords in a way that sounds natural.
- Unfamiliar subjects can be researched to find reliable knowledge.
- To engage the reader, write in the appropriate tone.
- Meet deadlines by managing your time effectively.
The Art of Writing SEO Articles
As with any type of post, the secret to producing articles for search engines is to start with excellent writing.
Keep in mind these essential details:
- Use the keyword phrases to direct what you write: What information is necessary for someone looking for these phrases?
- Create interesting content that is clear, concise, and grammatically correct. To make the content easier to read, use headings.
- Make sure your terms flow naturally in the context.
- Proofread everything.
Tips for Writing SEO Articles
- Writing with the reader in mind: Your tone may vary depending on the article assignment, but it should always be enlightening, compelling, and attentive to the reader’s demands.
- Use keywords naturally: The average reader shouldn’t be able to tell that keywords were used when reading your post.
- You should use the keywords to help you create your outline. Do any of the keywords make sense when used as major headings or in introductions? These may be some of the best and most natural areas to position your keyword phrases.
- Use a checklist: You might find it helpful to copy and paste the keywords into a different file so you can mark them as you use them and record your usage in a separate file.
- Read your essay aloud: You could discover places where the English doesn’t quite sound correct if you read your essay aloud before submitting it.
The A-Z of Keywords For Content Writers
Whatever you choose to call them: keywords, key phrases, or targets. However, rest assured that they support SEO content.
If you produce SEO material, assignments will likely include keywords that will improve their performance across a variety of search engines.
- Types of keywords
- Keyword positioning
- Stop words and such
- Keyword Research
- Keyword Formula
1. Types of keywords every Content Writer Should Know
The majority of clients will offer you a variety of keyword types. Although they may have a similar appearance and serve a similar function, how you employ them in your copy will vary.
- Primary Keywords: The most crucial keywords for SEO are those. You will also see clients rely on long-tail keywords, which are more specialised and have a lower search volume but a much more concentrated searcher intent. They frequently have a lot of searches and little competitors.
- Secondary Keywords: Despite typically having a lower search volume, these keywords are extremely pertinent to your primary keyword. Consider them as supporting keywords for the primary.
- Semantically Related Keywords: These words have a deeper connection to your main keywords than simple synonyms. These are frequently referred to as LSI keywords and denote subjects that would logically be covered in an article on your main keyword. As long as we’re on the subject of dogs, some LSI keywords for an article on “dog training” might be “potty training pups,” “dog whisperer,” and “interpreting dog behaviour.” Relevant subtopics may be indicated using semantic keywords.
2. Keyword Positioning
The way you employ keywords depends on the kind of material you’re creating; there is no one right method to do it. Here are some guidelines for a typical blog article, though:
- Use the primary keyword in the page title, meta description, at least one H1, at least one H2, and the first few sentences of the body text.
- Add a secondary keyword to the section’s body text and an H2.
- Semantic Keywords: Use as many as you can in the body text, at least once.
Before you begin writing, make sure to inquire about the customer’s keyword placement strategy because each client may have a different approach.
Sometimes clients will request that each term be used more than once or that the keyword density is reached, but this is becoming less often.
The method described above enables you to incorporate keywords while continuing to write primarily for the user and address search intent.
3. Stop Words and Such
Especially when working with SEO-optimized local material, you will encounter times when you are given keywords that are grammatically incorrect or extremely challenging to incorporate into the content (dentists New York, plumbers near me, etc.).
Small changes, punctuation additions or deletions, or converting a term from singular to plural should not affect how Google interprets the keywords. Additionally, you can incorporate what Google refers to as “stop words” without affecting the keyword’s propensity to be remembered.
Although Google has become extremely adept at determining what the actual keywords are despite everything else going on around them, you will inevitably encounter clients who are adamant that their carefully chosen keyword terms cannot be changed.
It is in your best interests to follow their instructions, even though they may not be in their best interests in terms of SEO, as each of your future clients will have their own rules about what to do (or not to do) with the keywords they give you.
If what the customer claims clashes with what you know to be accurate, just state your case, offer them links to authoritative websites, and then resume working.
4. Keyword Research
Clients occasionally request content writers to conduct keyword research for the material they create, however it’s not particularly typical.
You can accomplish this with the use of several tools, such as the Google Keyword Planner, Ubersuggest, SEMrush Keyword Magic, Moz Keyword Explorer, etc.
Additionally, you may utilize LSI Graph to generate semantically relevant keywords and Neil Patel’s new UberSuggest tool to generate keyword suggestions and analyse traffic for free. Simply put, it doesn’t get better than that.
What you need is a keyword or collection of keywords with respectable search traffic, a clear intent that your content can address, and ideally that isn’t extremely competitive.
How can you determine whether a search phrase is competitive?
- Examine the content that appears in the current top search results for the search keyword.
- How long is it?
- Does it contain a lot of information and sources?
- Are semantically relevant topics covered?
- It could be challenging to rank higher if the material accomplishes all these tasks properly. However, if they fall short in every one of these areas, you stand a decent chance of surpassing them.
Remember that SEO specialists typically conduct keyword research rather than writers or editors. If you decide to take on this duty, consider how you will bill the client — whether it be an hourly rate or by the keyword — to ensure that you are paid for your time.
5. Keyword Formulas
Clients frequently lack a precise keyword for every assignment they request while working on very large projects like producing city pages or product descriptions. Instead, they frequently urge writers to develop their own keywords using a straightforward method based on broad terms.
For instance, if a customer requested city pages for a car rental company, they may instruct writers to create keywords using the following formula:
“CITY NAME” + “Car Rentals” in the primary
“Best Cars for” + “CITY NAME” Secondary
In the case of product descriptions, it typically appears as follows:
“BRAND” + “MODEL NAME” + “DESCRIBER” + “PRODUCT”
Formulaic keywords are easy to deal with, but before you begin, make sure you have all the information you need from the client.
Why Featured Snippets Are Important
The unpalatable fact is that 75% of people never scroll past the first page of search engine results.
Top organic results are losing traffic to featured snippets in the form of fast answers, knowledge graphs, and videos.
According to Ahrefs, highlighted snippets appear in the search results for 12.29% of all search queries. The featured snippet receives 8.6% of clicks on these searches, detracting from the top-ranked search result.
On the other hand, according to Inc.com, your page traffic might climb by 20 to 30% and your organic CTR could increase by 677% if you can secure a spot in the featured snippet.
When you consider that between 70 and 80 per cent of users ignore paid advertisements, it becomes clear why brands need to rank their SEO content in the top 10 search results or featured snippets (position 0), as almost no one will click through and their rivals will capture the majority of their potential audience.
As you write, you should (and can) optimise for featured snippets. There are three fundamental kinds:
- Paragraph snippet
- Listicle snippet
- Table snippet
We can’t cover everything about writing content that Google will take into account for a featured snippet. However, it’s safe to conclude that the majority of featured snippets are the outcome of a searcher’s query. You only need to provide the solutions.
The (free) application Answer the Public is quite useful. Simply enter your topic or keyword, and it will generate questions that are related to your topic
How Important is Metadata
Strongly begin. In most circumstances, all that users will see of your article in search results are the title and meta description. The outcome? Users need to be persuaded to click through by your title and meta description.
Writing captivating titles has been extensively discussed, and there are even (free) tools to assess how good they are. This 2017 study by BuzzSumo is a wonderful place to start learning how to create strong titles, even though the data may be outdated.
Use CoSchedule’s Headline Analyzer once you’ve gotten the hang of it to evaluate your performance. You should aim for a score of 60 or better.
The meta description is a brief snippet that is between 160 and 320 characters long, depending on Google’s stance at the time.
Meta descriptions have only one objective: to encourage searchers to click on the link.
Because you only have a limited number of words available, your writing must be succinct, informative, compelling, and true to the article or post it refers to.
6 basic things you need to learn about SEO Content writing
You cannot learn how to become an SEO content writer without knowing the basic things you need to know as an SEO content writer and they include:
- Learning new developments in algorithms and the recent trends.
- Be abreast with the top of search engine optimization trends and keep on top of your game
- Make sure you have a good knowledge and understanding of keyword placement and volume
- Master how to apply these strategies and skills when you are writing blog posts, web pages, articles, and press releases.
- Find it worthwhile to learn how Google crawls pages. Learn also how it gives our link authority in order to build a successful strategy.
- Note that successful content writing is all about writing and linking multiple blog posts, so master the art of link building.
3 important things about SEO content writing
- Keyword- The topic or subject of research
- Content- The content of the topic or research work
- Ranking- your possible on Google
Can I learn SEO on my own?
Fortunately, you can learn everything you need about SEO online, and through other platforms like SEMrush by yourself. You need to understand the basics of the English Language equally.
Without a degree or college education, you can be an SEO content writer but it is important you get a degree because it will be an added advantage, especially in the communication and other related fields. Most SEOs are self-taught, by using free online learning resources available.
Where to get SEO content writing jobs
You can get SEO content writing jobs from different platforms ranging from:
- Job sites
- Social media
- Television
- Online via Google search
- Setting Google job alert
SEO content writer job platforms
The following platforms can offer both remote and full-time SEO content writing jobs and they are:
- Indeed
- Twitter e.t.c.
22 Job website to find remote SEO content writing jobs
- SimplyHired
- Guru
- Snagajob
- Glassdoor
- Jooble
- Workana
- JustTechJobs. com
- Monster
- Brybe. com
- Google Job Alert
- remoteok. com
- jsremotely. com
- flexjobs. com
- remoteleaf. com
- remoteleads. io
- hired. com
- remote. co
- justremote. co
- weworkremotely. com
- jobspresso. co
- dailyremote. com
- angel. co
4 Freelance SEO content writer jobs
- PeoplePerHour
- Contentwritingjobs. com
- Upwork
- Freelancer. com
Related searches- Top 15 Small Business Ideas in Nigeria.
Conclusion
SEO content writers are in high demand right now, with many businesses looking to build links and improve their search engine rankings. Most of the top websites have benefited from professional copywriters to make sure they attract customer attention, and I think it is time you do the same.
